Can you afford to retire?... Can you afford to wait to retire?

Can you afford to retire?

A better question might be can you afford to wait to retire?... The number of sunsets you will see decrease by one every single day... Will having the nest egg that your financial planner says you have to have to retire change that fact?

I dare say the answer is no.

Yet many potential retirees look to their financial planners to tell them if they have enough money to retire.

This is not wise.

You will hear that you will have to have 80% of your current salary generated each month by your investments before you can retire... Bad advice.

Some planners even say that you will spend more in retirement... Their thinking goes like this since you will not be working you'll spend your time shopping and spending more... This is absurd thinking.

Why such financial advice is flawed?

If you have read any of the advice on this site you will know that I disagree with most financial planners and how they approach saving for retirement.

I contend most folks would rather retire than work

The fact that the longer you wait to retire the less time that you will have to be retired

The older you are the less physically able you become to enjoy retirement

If your desire to retire a strong enough you will find a way to retire and spend less money not more money

My own experiences with financial planners

I have nothing against financial planners in fact one of my very best friends was a financial planner... I talked to him recently... He is still working and I have been retired since 1994.

In my desire to reduce my tax bill I purchased several tax shelters... Most of which turned out to be very poor investments... I would have been better off to e-file, pay the taxes and reduce my tax return from a tome, save myself the thousand dollars plus per year I spent on a CPA to prepare my taxes, and the money I spent when I got audited.

Can you afford to retire?... Ask yourself first

Remember that you are the one retiring and not your financial planner... No one but you is familiar with your retirement dreams.

Would you rather be 68 and have the keys to a new Mercedes in your pocket having just retired... Or the keys to a 99 Lexus with 260,000 miles on the odometer and being retired since 1994.

Can you afford to retire?... Now you have the facts to make an informed decision.